MANAGER'S VERDICT: SCUNTHORPE

29 September 2018

Nigel Powlson

NIGEL Clough said it was a "nearly day" for his team as they knocked on the door throughout the game before having to settle for a 0-0 draw against Scunthorpe.

The Brewers manager said: "The performance wasn't too bad and we created enough situations out there and we were just waiting for somebody to come up with a little bit of quality in the final third or finish one of the chances off.

"But it's a good point, a clean sheet and it will be an even better one if we win on Tuesday night.

"The effects of Tuesday night against Burnley kicked in a bit. We had spells when we played well but not as sustained as it has been in recent weeks. We thought the goal was going to come as we were playing well enough and we created chances right to the end.

"Scunthorpe changed their approach - they have been 4-4-2 under Stuart McCall in every game but they come here and play 4-3-2-1 and we are going to have to learn to cope with that when teams change their approach to deal with us.

"When teams see us playing as well as we have done they will be a bit more cautious in their approach."

Clough says that he's pleased that when they couldn't quite win the game his team made sure they didn't lose it.

He said: "We have seen so many games over the years where you lose those 1-0 because of a break away or you make a mistake. They nick a goal and it's a 1-0 home defeat and everyone is down then.

"We call it one-shot syndrome where you have controlled the game, created chances and you end up losing the game.

"Getting that point and not losing is important if we can take it on against Southend and get three.

"We are playing Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday for the next few weeks so we have to deal with that. And if it's coming down from the high of winning a big cup game you have to push yourselves to be right again.

"We don't play Premier League teams very often and it can seem like a little bit of a come down but you have to raise yourself again."